Jobs & Vacancies

"I found out I had HIV when I was pregnant for the first time, in 2009. In Kyrgyzstan, all women are tested during pregnancy twice, once early on and once later in the pregnancy. They say it is your choice whether to get tested, but if you don't then you cannot get maternity services. The result was a shock but I wanted to have my child.

My medical card has a code on it which shows that I have HIV to anyone who knows the codes... as soon as people in the hospital saw that code, they didn't want to help me

I sat down with my own maternity doctor and with the AIDS Centre and made a plan with them about the delivery and how it would be managed, because there is a lot of stigma associated with HIV in Kyrgyzstan. So, my doctor understood the issues. But when I started to give birth, my doctor was not available. So that meant I had to go to the maternity hospital and be seen by whoever was there. My medical card has a code on it which shows that I have HIV to anyone who knows the codes. There was no question about whether I disclosed my status – it was already there, on my medical card. And as soon as people in the hospital saw that code, they didn't want to help me. They started to find all kinds of reasons for rejecting me, for not being able to help with the delivery, but it was only because they were afraid of my HIV. Even the management of the hospital didn't want to accept me.

When people came to help with the birth, they were dressed up with gloves and suits and masks like spacemen

Eventually, I managed to contact the Head of the AIDS Centre and they intervened with the Head of the hospital to let me stay there, because I was about to give birth. But even then and despite their intervention, I was put in an isolation room. When people came to help with the birth, they were dressed up with gloves and suits and masks like spacemen. They were obviously very reluctant to touch me or even the baby. They left us in isolation the whole time I was there recovering, even when the baby was crying. It was awful. Afterwards I went back to that hospital with people from the AIDS Centre. We did some training with them and I talked about my experience and why it was wrong. It was very successful and it has led to further training sessions in other maternity hospitals, so I hope that some good has come of it. But I know, from later experiences and from other women, that there is still a long way to go to get rid of stigma in our maternity system.

They left us in isolation the whole time I was there recovering, even when the baby was crying. It was awful

"

DISCLAIMER

The articles in the HIV news section represent a diversity of opinions on topics of interest to the HIV treatment activist community. The EATG is not responsible for their content. The articles posted in that section do not necessarily reflect EATG views or opinions. For further questions please contact the source referred to in each article.

FAIR USE NOTICE

The HIV news section may contain copyrighted material which has not always been specifically authorised by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes to advance the understanding of scientific, ethical, legal and social issues. It is believed that this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material. This material is distributed without profit. Information in this section was accurately quoted during its compilation.

The EATG publishes its position paper on sex work policy

17/12/2018

Today, on the occasion of the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, the European AIDS Treatment Group publishes its stand on the sex work policy debate and approaches to delivering health-based policies. Sex workers are one of the five key-populations groups that are particularly vulnerable to HIV and frequently lack adequate access to services. Moreover, the ongoing and increasing criminalisation of sex work across WHO Europe has negative impact on sex workers’ health and human rights. Therefore, EATG aims to further its engagement with sex workers and optimise its contribution to policy discussions in Europe and beyond.

In particular, EATG calls for the following principles to be adhered by all stakeholders -including itself- to improve the prevention, treatment and care of HIV and other blood-borne infections:

Support the decriminalisation of sex work, including sex workers, clients and third parties

Support the establishment of anti-discrimination, hate crime and other rights-respecting laws to protect against discrimination and violence, and other rights violations, faced by sex workers.

Stand in solidarity with the sex workers and their fight for self-determination, self-organisation and the pursuit of human and labour rights.

Advocate for the meaningful involvement of sex workers in developing, implementing and evaluating laws, policies, programmes, services and research that affect them

Invite sex workers who reflect the diversity of local sex working communities to collaborate fully in policy, practice and research development, implementation and evaluation

Support sex-worker-led organisations and services, by offering relevant resources, advice and expertise where possible.

Report shows growing HIV, TB and malaria crisis in Venezuela

Venezuela faces a complex humanitarian emergency that is expanding and cascading throughout the Latin American region and around the globe. New research from ICASO and ACCSI reveal that health, economic,…

PARADIGM – Patients Active in Research and Dialogues for an Improved Generation of Medicines

Project aims: To provide a framework that allows structured, meaningful, sustainable and ethical patient engagement throughout three key decision-making points of the development of medicinal products: (i) the research priority…

HIV Outcomes – Beyond Viral Suppression

Initiative aims: HIV Outcomes, is a multi-stakeholder initiative developing and communicating expert, evidence based consensus recommendations for policy makers focused on the provision and delivery of high quality of care…